The UW-Madison geologist studies deep oceanic earthquake faults, which extend miles into the Earth’s crust below the seafloor, to learn what causes earthquakes and tsunamis. Tobin is currently at sea aboard the Japanese research vessel Chikyu, co-leading an international deep-sea drilling expedition to the Nankai Trough, a region off the southwest coast of Japan that is one of the most active earthquake zones on the planet.

The expedition, part of the Nankai Trough Seismogenic Zone Experiment (NanTroSEIZE), marks the first geologic study of these deep-sea faults, which have previously been inaccessible. Such faults are responsible for generating tsunamis, including the one that devastated Sumatra in December 2004.